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Who is she, this elderly woman purportedly used as a human shield by a young man shot dead only moments later?

Her name is possibly Agnes. She is said to be in her 90s. A resident is almost positive that maybe-Agnes is the same woman who was often seen in the lobby of the Bleecker St. Toronto Community Housing building, just whiling away the hours. One gentleman had warned her it wasn’t safe — a woman had been stabbed to death in an alleyway just up the street last October as she walked home from work early in the morning.

Another occupant believes maybe-Agnes is the same woman who volunteers with a church group, or perhaps the Salvation Army, or a youth hostel. Any of those scenarios is difficult to reconcile with a nonagenarian, no matter how sprightly.

In the absence of factual information from police, or the close-mouthed TCH, rumours and gossip fill the void. It is suggested maybe-Agnes doesn’t live here anymore, that she’s been relocated to another building since the Thursday night incident, or has been hospitalized because of the psychological trauma experienced.

You can understand the interest. Even more, they can put themselves in the position of an elderly person suddenly caught up in a chaotic and frightening situation as an innocent participant to gunplay. In this recent episode, police have speculated that Nisan Nirmalendran, the 21-year-old gunned down in the lobby, had acted instinctively, seizing upon the unidentified woman — maybe-Agnes — as he was being pursued by his shooter.

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Nirmalendran, the shooter and maybe-Agnes were all caught together in the same small vestibule space, the inner entrance door glass shattered by a bullet.

“The resident is used somewhat as a shield as the shooting is going on,” Det.-Sgt. Terry Browne told the Star’s Carys Mills.

They are fragile and vulnerable people, many of the residents in this Cabbagetown complex. Some are without any family at all. Quite a few never leave their apartments, isolated by age and infirmity.

It is a seniors building but no longer occupied solely by seniors, residents say — and they’re not happy about that, either.

“People walk in all the time and we don’t know who they are,” complains 75-year-old Nolan Case, after negotiating his scooter around a wheelchair, both vehicles trying to manoeuvre through the lobby entrance simultaneously, one coming, one going. “You don’t know when someone might pull a gun on your.’’

Case, who’s lived at this address for a decade, said he looked out his window after hearing gunshots around 11:20 p.m. Thursday. “There were bullets flying all over the place. I saw one guy running away.”

He wonders about the younger men he sees frequently in the elevator and lobby. “It doesn’t look to me like they’re visiting anybody. But, you know, there are people living here who can’t get out so sometimes they’ll pay someone to bring in groceries. I think there are young guys who actually move in, take over the apartments, and the (residents) are too scared to say anything. I’ve seen cokeheads hanging around, people bringing in their drugs.”

Another resident, a former military man who doesn’t want his name used, points out that the building’s elderly occupants are easy prey for nefarious individuals after their pensions and social assistance cheques. “I know there are some old guys who have prostitutes come to visit them. We all have needs, right? Then these women make themselves at home and you can’t get rid of them. They bring in their boyfriends. It becomes a place to stay.”

He points to a surveillance camera in the lobby. “It captures people coming in through the front door but not that one over there,” and he gestures to another entrance. Indeed, there appear to be at least four means to enter the building.

“I was sleeping when police knocked on my door,” the military man continues. “I looked outside and there were so many cop cars down there, it looked like the parking lot of a police academy. Why does a tragedy have to happen before anybody pays attention? When we call police to report somebody suspicious hanging around, it takes them hours to get here.”

A woman who does volunteer work for the building’s residents, preparing tax returns for low-income earners, told the Star that she recently had four elderly ladies tell her they were alarmed by the menacing environment and had asked the TCH to be moved elsewhere, “but there’s a 10-year waiting list.” Those women were primarily worried by “drug dealers” who had been relocated to this address from TCH buildings elsewhere.

There’s a TCH constable in the lobby office at the moment. No such constable was on the premises last Thursday, say residents. “We used to have a security guard who worked overnight, 11 to 7, but he disappeared a few years ago,” says one 13th-floor occupant. “Budget cuts, they said.”

Freshly affixed around the lobby walls are statements issued by the housing authority. “This incident was specific to the person who was shot and not specifically to any residents of 55 Bleecker St.” it claims. “We are deeply troubled and upset by this vicious shooting, and that the callous acts of others have put innocent seniors at risk in their own building.”

Surveillance video has been turned over — all cameras were operating Thursday night, the statement says — and the images were to have been released by police Sunday but, as of early evening, that hadn’t happened. “It’s quite disturbing, what is captured,” Browne had said earlier.

Police are looking for one suspect and “a person of interest.” This appears to be the individual captured entering the building with Nirmalendran several hours before the shooting. They left together later, using a different door.

Nirmalendran, Toronto’s 13th homicide victim of 2013, is “known to police,” as they say. Of the three Nirmalendran brothers who emigrated with their family from Sri Lanka when the boys were young, two are now dead by gunfire.

Nixon Nirmalendran, 22, was killed in the infamous shootout at the Eaton Centre food court last June, along with his friend Ahmed Hassan, 24. At the time of that audacious crime, Hassan was wanted on drug charges and Nixon had just been released from jail, a manslaughter charge against him in the slaying of a fellow inmate at the Don Jail having been dropped.

In an earlier incident, Nixon pleaded guilty to using a pellet gun in a robbery attempt that had been interrupted by police. During that takedown, Nixon’s accomplice, 18-year-old Alwy al-Nadhir, was fatally shot by one of the officers. The Special Investigations Unit probed the death and the officer was absolved. As a gesture of remembrance, Nixon had Alwy’s face tattooed on his arm.

Investigators said Nixon and Hassan both belonged to a Regent Park street gang, the Sic Thugs — as did Christopher Husbands, charged with first-degree murder in their killing, along with six counts of attempted murder.

One slain Nirmalendran son is a tragedy; two is an appalling pattern.

And the elderly woman caught up in the bang-bang melodrama at a Cabbagetown seniors home Thursday night? The lady vanishes.

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